Talk about seeing the light! Made up of over 55,000 colored LED lights, the Luminarie Cagna is a massive cathedral that will be on display at the second annual Festival of Lights in Ghent, Belgium. More than 200,000 visitors are expected to visit the town from January 26th to the 29th as the city is illuminated by dazzling light shows and other LED spectacles.

The eye-catching structure will be a stand out out in the town and is the work of Luminarie De Cagna, an Italian family business. During local festive occassions, the company would light up buildings with oil and carbide lamps, but most likely due to the high fire risk, this was soon switched to electric lights. Today, only LEDs are used for set pieces and they are joined together to make massive curtains of light that can be draped over buildings. This allows whole sections of the town to be lit up.

The LED Cathedral was designed with Romanesque and Renaissance architecture in mind and at its zenith, it stands an impressive 28m high. Unsurprisingly, the cathedral has already been drawing large crowds to Belfortstraat like moths to a flame. You also need not worry about the amount of energy being used, as despite being made from 55,000 LEDs, it only consumes 20Kwh of electricity. If you live in the region and are thinking of attending, then you’ll be happy to hear that the light festival’s theme is ‘Happiness’, which is not a coincidence since 2012 is the Maeterlinck Year in Ghent.

6 Comments

Really impressive piece of artwork. It is also interesting for its sustainable concept. Thanks for the interesting post. Manchester
architect.

Lev_AstovFebruary 6, 2012 at 11:38 am

@nmg196: I came here to say the same thing. I seriously expect better from anything having to do with green living. Understanding energy usage is important.

nmg196February 6, 2012 at 4:15 am

“20Kwh of electricity” doesn’t mean anything unless also specify how long it takes to use that amount. If it uses that amount every hour, then it’s high. If it’s per month, then it’s very low. It’s like saying a car “only” uses 20,000 litres of petrol.

allisonxchangFebruary 2, 2012 at 6:50 am

This is beautiful! Whose LEDs did they use, do you know?

JWagoner54January 31, 2012 at 6:01 pm

This cathedral looks so cool! I’m even more impressed that it consumers less electricity.